Month: May 2017

I’ve done a lot of different workout & eating programs over the years and when someone asks me, “Which one works?” the honest answer is whichever one you stick to!

I am so in love with this 21 Day Fix program that I feel I have to shout it from the rooftops! So here are 21 reasons why I love it so much:

1- The eating plan is so easy. In the past I’ve spent hours calculating calories of fats, carbs, and proteins, and adding up daily amounts. With this program you do two simple math problems to figure out your calorie range and then look at the chart to see how much of each type of food you can eat in a day.

2- Measuring portions is easy because you simply fill the little plastic containers that are color-coded for each food type.

3- I can follow the food plan and still eat a Paleo-ish diet. Or if someone was a vegetarian, they can still easily follow the food plan.

4- The program also has you drink a protein shake called Shakeology as one of your meals or snacks. I’ve been drinking chocolate and it is a great replacement for a sugary treat that you don’t have to feel guilty about.

5- You don’t have to give up all sweats and alcohol. You can save up container portions to have a treat or drink every once in awhile.

6- You are not food deprived on this eating plan. There are days where I can’t even get in everything I am supposed to eat.

7- There is an app where you can track your daily intake of food, water, and also your workouts.

8- The workouts are varied every day so you don’t get tired of doing the same ones over and over again.

9- The workouts are all only 30 minutes long. I often dread long workouts, but with these, the time flies by!

10- The workouts are easily to modify. During this past 21 days I’ve fought plantar fasciitis and I also tweaked my old knee injury and I was still able to do something every day.

11- I can do the workouts in the comfort of my own home. I don’t have to spend time driving to a gym or working around a gym class time that doesn’t fit my schedule.

12- Working out at home also means I can wear whatever I want and not worry about what anyone else thinks.

13- The trainer who leads the workouts, Autumn Calabrese, isn’t annoying and doesn’t crack lame jokes. Nothing is worse than a video workout where you have to hear the same dumb stuff said over and over again every time you do the workout.

14- The cost is reasonable. It’s the same price as a yearly membership at a gym like Planet Fitness and the same price as I was paying for one month of Crossfit.

15- The Beachbody on Demand means I can stream it anywhere on any device so I can even do a workout in a hotel room when we are on a trip.

16- The Beachbody on Demand also can give you access to all the other Beachbody workout programs so you can switch it up after the first 21 days.

17- Doing the 21 days in a challenge group means support from a coach as well as camaraderie and encouragement from other challengers who are going through the same program at the same time.

18- The challenge group also helps keep you accountable. You have to login every day and post that you did a workout and drank your shakeology.

19- There is a plethora of resources out there on Youtube, Social Media, and the Beachbody website that can support you.

20- I saw results quickly. I’ve slowly gained 10 pounds over the last 3 years, and in 21 days, I lost 5 of the 10 I have to lose. That’s HALF!

21- That fact that it’s only 21 days that you are committing to seems doable and doesn’t seem daunting.

I’m going to do the 21 day fix program soon and will be starting my challenge group. If you are interested in joining, please let me know!

My family and friends know that 95% of the time I have a water bottle with me. There are two reasons for my obsession with water: 1- I am pretty much always feeling thirsty; 2- I’ve read so many different things over the years that talk about how important it is to consume water. Apparently the excessive intake of liquids in a compulsive manner is known by the name potomania, however, I don’t think I’m at the excessive point.

Interestingly, a study was done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2013 in which they analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute’s 2007 Food Attitudes and Behaviors Survey. Out of a sample of 3,397 adults, the researchers found the following:

7 percent of adults reported no daily consumption of drinking water

36 percent of adults reported drinking 1-3 cups of drinking water a day

35 percent of adults reported drinking 4-7 cups of drinking water a day

This study only measured the intake of pure water and did not include fluids gained from other beverages. The low percentages causes me to draw the conclusion that most people are drinking other beverages rather than water.

If you search the internet you will find a plethora of webpages with list of numerous reasons to drink water. I found a list on WebMD that I feel covers the basics:

Drinking water helps maintain the balance of fluids in the body.

Water can help control calories.

Water helps energize muscles.

Water helps keep skin looking good.

Water helps your kidneys.

Water helps maintain normal bowel function.

For anyone who is interested, I am going to be starting a 5 Day Water Challenge Group on Facebook. What is a water challenge? For 5 days everyone in the group will be focusing on HYDRATION. That means we’ll be drinking 1/2 our body weight in ounces of water each day. I know, it sounds like a lot – BUT its actually the perfect amount we should be drinking each day to stay hydrated!

I’ll be sharing some tips and knowledge each day. It’s the job of the group members to drink their daily allotment of water, share any tips with the group and check in with how they did for the day.

The Challenge will start on Tuesday, May 16, 2017. Click Here to find the Facebook Group. More details will be added to the group over the weekend! I hope to see lots of people joining the challenge!

I had a rough day at work today due to a conflict with a coworker. I left work really worked up and upset. When I got home I wanted to just sit on the couch with a glass of wine and veg out in order to let go of that emotional turmoil from work.

But then I thought about this 21 Day Fix program I am doing and how I’m only on Day 8. And the thought of quitting and not making it to day 21 got my competitive juices revving, so I got up and forced myself to do the workout. Now that I’m done, I definitely feel better, but I still couldn’t get the issues from the day at work out of my mind. So I spent a few minutes reflecting on why I was so upset. And this led my mind to remember a situation from over 10 years ago when I also had an issue with a co-worker. I remembered that I had been reading a book back then that helped me deal with that issue. So I went to the bookshelf and pulled out the book.

The book is “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle. One of the big ideas from the book is the issue of our egos which is our identification with ourselves or as he puts it “the illusory sense of self” (p.27). He goes on to talk about how that voice in our head is what we identify with as who we are, which includes the “incessant steam of involuntary and compulsive thinking and the emotions that accompany it” (p. 59). His claim is that we have to be aware of this thinking and not be “unconscious” in order to awaken to our life’s purpose.

The section that I needed today was on Complaining and Resentment. Tolle says, “Every complaint is a little story the mind makes up that you completely believe in” (p. 61). When this complaining has to do with other people, you then apply negative labels to them, which is your ego’s need to be right. Resentment is the emotion that goes along with complaining. The same is true coming from the person you are in conflict with and you therefore see their ego as their identity. He says non-reaction to the ego in others is one of the most effective ways of going beyond the ego in yourself and recognizing someone’s behavior as coming from the ego. When this happens you realize that it’s not personal and your compulsion to react will no longer be there. Another person will “become an enemy if you personalize the unconsciousness that is the ego” (p. 63).

Rereading this section of the book, helped me get over the conflict of the day and let go of my personal feelings. I was able to step back and realize that it’s not me, that it is the co-workers ego. And now I’m not going to waste another minute of my life dwelling on it.

I guess the overall message in this post that I’m hoping to convey is that a huge part of living a happy, healthy and active life is that inward personal development. I don’t think very many people ever truly master that inner junk, but you have to keep working on it and not giving up on it just the same as you do for the physical stuff.